Attic Pottery - Red-Figure Ware: Skyphos
Inv. No.: 72.001
Provenance: Attica
Date: middle of 5th century BC
Height: 81mm
Diameter: 100mm
Gift of Dr Stanley Castlehow
This deep cup has a rounded, gently curving bowl set on a small ring foot that has a torus profile. There is a flat strap handle on one side that curves from the rim to the side of the bowl, while attached to the rim on the other side is a horizontal handle that is round in cross section and semi-circular in shape. This is a special type of skyphos, known as a "glaux" which means "owl" in Greek. The combination of one horizontal and one vertical handle is thought to make the cup resemble an owl. The red-figure decoration on each side of the cup is a heraldic depiction of an owl flanked by olive sprigs. Both bird and plant were symbolically associated with Athena and therefore with Athens, suggesting that these very common cups may have functioned in the same way that souvenirs do today. A similar owl/olive device is also found on Athenian coins. Apart from the red-figure decoration, the cup is black, a metallic black on the inside and slightly chipped and misfired on the exterior.
Function:
A drinking cup.
Manufacture:
A wheel-thrown vase with a turned foot. The handles were shaped by hand and attached with slip.
Decoration:
- On each side of the vase is an alert red-figure owl shown with a profile body facing right and a frontal head. The large eyes are outlined in black with a central black dot. Fine relief lines are used for semi-circular "eyebrows" above the eyes while the beak is a rough black triangle. Dots ornament the rest of the head, four on one side and five on the other. The outline and details of wing feathers are suggested by fine black, hastily executed, relief lines. There are also rows of black dots, a double row across the top of the wing and a single row lower down.
- Each owl is flanked by vertical sprigs of olive that have four leaves arranged in pairs on either side of a central stem which bifurcates at the top. Fine black lines are used to roughly indicate the central vein of each leaf.
- A reserved band passes around the vase, beneath the figured scenes, and each combination of owl and olive sprigs is set on a ground line that has several fine black lines visible within it.
Bibliography:
Beazley, J. D., Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, second edition, Oxford, Clarendon, 1963, 982 (plus further bibliography).
Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Classical Period: a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1989, 39.
Crawford, L., "Some thoughts on the owl skyphoi in the Antiquities Museum", Queensland Friends of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, No. 29 (March 1999), 6-10.
Johnson, F. P., "A Note on Owl Skyphoi", American Journal of Archaeology, 59 (1955), 119-124.
Kanowski, M.G., The Antiquities Collection, catalogue, Department of Classics and Ancient History, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, 1978, 20.
Watson, M., "The Owls of Athena: Some Comments on Owl-Skyphoi and their Iconography", Art Bulletin of Victoria, 39 (1998), 35-44.
Comparanda:
Boardman, J., Athenian Red Figure Vases, The Classical Period: a Handbook, London, Thames and Hudson, 1989, Figs. 96, 97.
Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 23, Capua 2 (undated), III I, Tavola 15, 8 (an owl skyphos or kotyle, ie, it has two horizontal handles).
Green, J. R. and B. Rawson, Antiquities, catalogue, Classics Department Museum, The Australian National University, Canberra, 1981, Inv. No. 63.01, p. 40.
Johnson, F. P., "A Note on Owl Skyphoi", American Journal of Archaeology, 59 (1955), Plates 35-38, especially Figs. 14, 18 and 20.
Moignard, E., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 16, Edinburgh (1989), Plate 26, 7-8.
Palange, F. P. P., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Italia 47, Como 1 (1970), III I, Tavola 2, 2.
Vos, M. F., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, The Netherlands 5, Leiden 3 (1983), III I, Plate 184, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6.
Walters, H. B., Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain 5, British Museum 4 (1929), III I c, Plate 32, 1-10 (3 and 8 are owl kotyles).